Phantom Series Boxed Set Read Online Free PDF Page B

crackling across the layer of sand encrusted on the floor.
    “I’m not leaving,” she said. “Not just yet.”
    “The place is deserted, Alexa. And thanks to our seafaring friends, we know the structure is relatively sound. Let’s get back to the mainland, call in our structural engineers and our designers and—”
    She turned and faced her stepbrother squarely. “I said no, Jacob. I want some time to look around. I…”
    She faltered. She what ? Wanted lo know if the figure of the man she’d seen in the window had been a figment of her imagination or, as she suspected, a ghost? Could he be the man portrayed in the painting?
    Despite the sudden difficulty she had moving her legs, she took a few steps away from the canvas. “I want to get a feel for the place.”
    With perfect timing, Jacob’s cell phone trilled loudly, the noise jarring. There was nothing to soften the sound. No carpets. No furniture. No draperies. Even the room upstairs where she’d been so sure she’d seen a man yank a curtain closed just after she spotted him from the helicopter had ended up having an entirely bare window.
    While Jacob was distracted with the call, she thanked the Coast Guard seamen for their time. After assuring them that she and her brother would return to the mainland on their chartered boat and would exercise the utmost caution while on the island, they left.
    “Finally,” she said.
    “Yes, she’s here with me,” Jacob replied to the caller. He moved to hand the phone to her, but she waved him away, her gaze captured again by the portrait. His nose was as interesting as the rest of him, the nostrils flared ever so slightly and his lips, she noticed, were curved almost imperceptibly upward. As if he was on the verge of a sneer.
    “I’ll make sure Alexa is accurately informed,” Jacob insisted, his volume increasing.
    She stepped farther away from Jacob and closer to the painting. She had no interest in the obvious crisis at the office. The urge to get rid of Jacob, too, and experience the castle while alone overwhelmed her. She raised her hand and realized her fingers were shaking.
    Touch him.
    Touch me .
    “She’s asked me to handle it,” Jacob said.
    He laid his hand on her shoulder. Alexa nearly jumped out of her skin.
    She caught her breath and acknowledged his assumption with a quick wave.
    Jacob walked down the stairs and toward the main entrance, but Alexa’s heartbeat didn’t slow. She removed the backpack she’d filled prior to leaving the marina and double-checked her stash. Bottled water. Energy bars. Dried fruit and nuts. A very large knife. Two emergency flares and a flare gun. A portable GPS and her satellite phone.
    Enough to keep her safe and sound for a few hours, right?
    She glanced up at the painting. Had that tiny sneer eased into a smile?
    Below, Jacob’s voice grew increasingly perturbed. She was the CEO of Chandler Enterprises, not an operations manager like him. If she didn’t have the quality staff to handle a problem without her intervention for a few hours, then how could the company remain successful?
    She’d just zipped up her backpack when Jacob returned the phone to his waist and marched back up the stairs.
    “I lost the signal, but I got an earful. There’s a storm blowing through Boston,” he explained.
    “And I control the weather, how?” she asked.
    Jacob frowned. “We’re hosting that big convention this weekend.”
    She took a few steps closer to the painting. Away from Jacob. Away from the Crown Chandler crisis. Away from her everyday life. Just for a moment. Just for one, brief moment.
    “And?” she asked reluctantly. The sooner the situation was explained, the sooner she could order Jacob to handle the solution.
    “The hotel lost power.”
    “That happens in storms,” she pointed out, even as a dip in the pit of her stomach warned her there was more to the story.
    “The hotel is booked to capacity and there isn’t even enough light to run the